Reforming education

A Fresh Start

2007-03-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

In the next few weeks, I plan on really getting back to the kind of teaching that I think my students need. It's sad to say, but with my student teacher teaching, I feel like my classroom has gotten much more teacher directed and much less about letting the kids make choices in their learning. Again, in any kind of traditional school, kids can only make so many choices, but they've lost some of them.

All that being said, I think my student teacher will be a great teacher. She's miles ahead of where I was when I started teaching, at least in terms of theories of education and discipline. Once she has her own classroom, I'm sure she's going to do a great job.

Next for me, is really trying to help kids find their creativity. Now, how to do that...

Beyond Discipline

2007-03-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

I bought Beyond Discipline by Alfie Kohn last weekend and have been reading all week (in my copious amounts of free time.) I don't know how you can possibly read what Alfie Kohn has to say and still believe that discipline programs work, or are even in the kids best interest. The quotes from these programs that Kohn uses are amazing.

I was talking to my AP and she said that she thought Kohn was operating in the ideal world. And I think that's true. It's hard to do what he talks about. It's hard not to revert back to trying to manipulate kids' behavior. I do it all the time. But I think it's an idea worth shooting for.

How to start a revolution

2007-03-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

I'm ready for the revolution. I think working with Pepperdine this year has made me so aware of what real education should be. I think it's made me see that I don't get the luxury of sitting back and taking it easy. I know what's right, I know the best way to teach kids, and I think it's important that people who know what's right do it, and find a way to help others too.

I've been lazy lately. I've been going with the flow at school. Unfortunately, sometimes that means I haven't struck out to make change where change is necessary. I think I was really convicted about that last week when I was watching my student teacher teach. I had a really uncomfortable beginning of the week as I watched my reading class. My reading kids are unengaged. They are afraid to take risks. And their work lacks creativity.

It's my job to get them involved. It is late in the year, admittedly. And I have a student teacher who will be with me for another month. It doesn't matter. It's time for change. And if I need to, I'll take over parts of reading again. I still have to teach grammar in one way or another (blech), but it will be short. I am teaching creativity and hoping I can get that to spill over into everything else.

All this is to say, I am going to be thinking every week, probably every day about how to really let kids focus their learning on what they are interested in. I can't wait to see how it goes.

Accidentally on the right track

2007-02-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

So, today, when it was time for social studies, I had a massive headache. I didn't have anything special planned to start our new lesson--just doing a KWL chart, vocabulary and then reading through the text. As I stood up in front of my kids, a different idea hit me. I decided to have my kids write what they knew about the topic by themselves. Then I passed out chart paper and had them share and discuss their ideas, and then write down the ideas that they agree on. After that, they shared them all with the class, and we discussed. The whole time, I resisted giving any information, opinions, etc.

Then, I passed out the packets of information on the topic (we don't have textbooks.) The conversations that ensued afterwards were amazing. The kids were flying through the packets, writing down as much information as they could. They were arguing over where Christopher Columbus was from, and why Italy wouldn't pay for his trip and whether or not people really believed the world was flat back then. They were engaged and they were learning and not because they knew something was going to be on a test, but because they had challenged themselves to find the answers and I, frankly, had almost nothing to do with it. It was awesome.

How kids learn

2007-02-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

I've been taking a lot of pictures of my kids using Lego Mindstorms and paying attention to them while they are building and testing things out. I have this great picture of one of my kids, sprawled out on the floor, ready to test her lego car. It's so funny to me because even last year, I would have cringed when I saw the photo because that's not appropriate behavior in a classroom. It's so funny because there are all of these preconceived notions in my head about what's okay in a classroom.

I store all of these thoughts away, all the little thoughts where I start to tell a child they can't do something, ask myself why and realize that the only reason it isn't okay is because that's what I learned somewhere along the line. I've been trying to break myself of the habit of not allowing things just because that's the way it's been or that's what I learned once upon a time.

Changing the World

2007-02-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I'm sure I have lots of different things to say, but I want to start with the one that this whole blog, this whole website is about, and that's changing the state of education. I watched a movie, Accepted, recently that helped put things in perspective for me. It's funny how I've spent time looking for ways to formulate my thoughts on education, and this one, seemingly cheesy movie was able to make things clear for me. My friends have already pointed out to me that they think I'm crazy based on this, but I urge you to see the movie.

I have a student teacher right now, so I'm spending some time watching instruction instead of actually providing it, and I feel for my kids. She's not bad, she's in fact pretty good but she's still been bought that a teacher's job is to lead and the students need to follow. I do the same thing during the times I'm in charge, so I'm not being critical. More and more I am being led to the idea that at some point, I will need to start my own school. I think I'm being dragged to that place kicking and screaming, but I also know what I want to accomplish can't be accomplised in the public education system.

Changing my name?

2006-12-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

I wonder when it was that the teacher became the be all and end all voice that matters? What am I doing to the kids in my room that they have to have my opinion. They have to show me their work and know that I think it's okay before they can move on and finish creating whatever they are creating.

I mean, okay, it's flattering. 32 little people who want, or need your stamp of approval. And when one of them raises up the Hopi pot they are making and says, Miss Rivers, is this good? It's hard to not give that nod of approval.

It's not just that I'm exhausted after an hour spent constantly reassuring children that their work is good (or admonishing them to stop trailing flour across the floor) that I'm thinking about this. I would certainly be less tired if their peers opinions meant as much as mine. But I do think that part of being a student centered classroom is realizing that the teacher isn't the only one in the room with the "right" answers.

The same thing happened in math today. I was showing the students how to do something new and many of the students at the group tables understood. I encouraged them to help each other, but when it was time to do some independent work, I asked kids to come to the carpet if they wanted me to show them how to do it again. 10 of them came, despite the fact that they were sitting next to people who wanted to help them.

I need to work on fostering this environment in my room.

Cheating

2006-12-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

Today my kids took a science test. I was a little nervous about how they'd do because the last chapter was quite boring, not a lot of good experiments or activities to do and the chapter took longer than I would have liked. We did chapter reviews and the kids studied together a bit, but I knew that it would be tough for kids who don't do well on traditional tests.

When I went to grade the tests, I was pleasantly surprised as my students seemed to do really well on the front page which was vocabulary. They did less well on the next page, and on the writing section they did well enough that I felt like they had learned the necessary skills.

Then I graded the tests of two of my students and noticed that they had the exact same answers. On a multiple choice test, that's one thing, but on the writing sections, again, the answers were exactly the same. I got angry when I first read through them. I sometimes take the misbehavior of my students personally and that's what I did at first.

When I approached the students, both of them began to sob, one protestng her innocence, the other just quietly crying. I don't know exactly what they thought I was going to do to them, but when I said they'd have to take a different test and get a behavior referral, they both calmed down considerably.

I'm smart enough to realize that there is a reason that students cheat at this age, and it's not because they are lazy (at least not for the most part.) The child in question does his homework. He's an English Language Learner and is below grade level in reading. Of course we spend a lot of time talking about the science concepts, so he's not expected to get it all on his own, but clearly something wasn't clicking for him. I'm more sad that he felt like he had to cheat than that he did cheat.

Wii

2006-12-03T20:12:00.000-08:00

So I've had a Wii for a week and a half. It seems like a lot longer than that. I love the Wii-- it's a lot of fun and I think it has a lot of educational implications. I've played tennis everyday since I got the game. I set a goal to 1) beat a fellow Wii tennis player and 2) reach pro status. I did very well at first, but as my level gets higher, I'm realizing that I need to play the game a little differently than I was before. Interestingly enough, some of the players in the middle levels seem to be stronger players than the ones at the higher end.

What's interesting to me is that I get frustrated when I lose, go do something else, but keep coming back to it. I think part of the reason is that I have a goal. I wonder if more learning in the classroom could be goal oriented, where the students set their own goals for what they want to learn. Of course, for it to be genuine, students would need to have some choice in their learning. The other reason I think I keep coming back to it is that I want the payoff of seeing myself get better at the game. The results are obvious--if I've done well I win (most of the time.) If I haven't, I need to keep working and learning the skills necessary to win the next time.

What I'm Thankful For

2006-11-24T15:58:00.000-08:00

I thought about writing this post yesterday, but after playing my Wii for a good chunk of the day, I put if off until today.
Let's see, what I'm thankful for... my new Wii. Okay, well that's true. My Wii is really cool and I definitely got lucky getting it purely by accident during the one minute it was available on Amazon. But, on to the serious stuff...

I have had a very stressful school year so far. I remember when I was still just a candidate for the job I have right now. I remember how the idea of working at this charter school occupied every minute of my free time for about a week and a half while I was going through interviews, demo lesson and waiting to find out if I got the job. In my mind, the ability to work at this school would change everything for me about how I teach.

Since I've been here, I've been judging my teaching, comparing myself to others and constantly worrying about whether I am measuring up to others' expectations of me. The fact is, I may not be measuring up to some peoples' expectations. People around me have told me to worry only about what the important people think. And I've also realized, that even then, you're going to let down the important people in your life, too.

One of the OMET students and I were talking the other day and she said, wow, you must be so excited. You have so much exciting stuff going on in your life. And the fact is, she's right. I published an article, I've been invited to speak at two conferences, I'm "working" at Pepperdine and getting to work with one of my favorite people. I'm also looking at getting my doctorate degree. Frankly, there are a lot of great things going on in my life. I'm working on a new education article and a book on education.

I am of course also thankful for my family, for my friends and for my cadre(s) who support me. :)

Balance

2006-11-17T07:30:00.000-08:00

I got chastized last night again for not having balance in my life. Essentially, I spend all my time working on something. Well, I have to say that's not true. I wend to Disneyland for a few hours over the weekend, had dinner with a friend and got a massage. I'm not doing so bad. But during the week, I do pretty much spend all of my waking time working on something on my goals sheet. Don't confuse that with I spend all of my time at work. I'm to the point where I spend about 10 hours a day at work, and that's probably where it's going to stay for right now. I actually feel that I should spend more time on my actual work.

But, I don't have a lot of things that I do that are just "fun". So my goal for this weekend is to set 3 fun goals for myself and add those to my list of things to do. I'm pretty sure one of them will be train for a short race, probably 5k and probably just walking it. I'm sure I could walk one now, but I'd prefer to be in better shape. I'm not sure how "fun" that will be, but at the very least it will be healthy and healthy is necessary right now too.

Other things I've thought about: learning how to do pottery, doing something with building in second life, getting a video game, cooking...

I will finalize this weekend...

How do you do it?

2006-11-15T07:43:00.000-08:00

I feel a little silly every time I type the words "changing the world". Maybe I should just say changing the educational system. On Bill's website, he writes that he doesn't think that the education system needs to be changed incrementally, but that it needs a wholesale change that will come from a grassroots movement. (Check it out if you haven't: www.bmosely.com.) I agree and want to be part of that grassroots movement. Actually, maybe what I want to do is start it. Or help start it.

It seems like quite the daunting task. How do you spread the word? (Conferences, websites, articles...) How do you connect people together who feel the same way? Once you have a community of evangelists--well, what then? What action do you as a group take that's going to start making the right kinds of changes? I've been somewhat obsessed with this the last few weeks, and now I'm trying to formulate a plan.

I'm starting with 10 teachers/educators who I think will be evangelists for the message of changing the education system. I don't know who those 10 are because I haven't let myself really think about it yet. There are a few in the back of my mind- a few who are essential, who I wouldn't do it without, and then I need to expand from there. The problem of course, is that no matter how much people say they agree with your message, to be a useful evangelist, they have to have the time and the inclination to help you. And that's hard. Most of my friends won't be part of the ten, mostly because they think I'm nuts. They tend to think it's crazy that I spend all of my non-work time on stuff like writing, working with Pepperdine, investigating Second life and working on my website and other things that I'm not getting paid for and not seeing any results from yet. Oh, yeah, and applying for a Doctorate in Education.

I'm trying to see the bigger picture. I'm hoping I can find some folks who want to see it with me.

I am not a patient person

2006-11-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

I know this is no surprise to anyone who actually knows me. When I decide to do something, I want it to happen now. I am beating my head up against the wall with that fact right now. I have all of these ideas of things that I want to do, things that I would like to be spending my time on, but I have this other thing, this job teaching that is getting in the way of that. It's funny, I'm almost depressed every morning when I go to school because I have to leave all of the other things that I'm working on. When my kids come in, my mood brightens, but the same thing happens after school. I don't want to spend my time grading papers and fixing bulletin boards. I want to go work on my book or my website, or helping Pepperdine students in Second Life.

This seems a little wrong to me. What I'm writing books about is changing education, so shouldn't teaching still be the most important thing to me? I guess what it comes down to is that I'm bored at school. I've done this for five years and all of the other stuff is a challenge. Saying I've done if for five years doesn't make me an expert, or even mean that I'm a great teacher. It just means that I like change, and even changing school districts doesn't change the fact that this is basically the same thing I've been doing.

I want to change the world. And I want to do it now. :)

Family Day

2006-10-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had TAS family day in our classrooms. What this is, is an opportunity for kids to go learn in another classroom with students of all different ages for an hour. I found this to be a really interesting experiment. It's interesting to have kindergarteners and sixth graders in the same room. Even more interesting to try to teach something that is meaningful to all of them. The kindergarteners were shy, and didn't really want to participate. The sixth graders (or at least one of them) were too cool for the activity. The kids in the middle ages were excited and ready to share. We talked about hispanic heritage today and the kids got to taste sweet tamales and tried to get to know each other a little. I think next time we meet, I'll have more small group sharing and less whole group sharing to make the littler kids feel more comfortable.

What is most interesting to me about this experiment is that I'm at a school that is willing to experiment and see how things go. Everything may not be a stellar success, but they will try new things.

Guerilla Teaching

2006-10-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

So, Sherpa Bill talked to me the other day about writing a book about how to use effective teaching strategies in the real world. I think this is a great idea, and I've already started to put chapters together. My thought at his point, is how to make it well received by people who are at school's like I was before. The fact is, there is a high frustration level in these places. And really, no matter what, there will be people who will not want to put in one extra ounce of effort into their teaching to make it more interesting or more compelling or more fun for students. Why should they, when they are being told that the right way to do it is to teach directly from the textbook? Teaching is hard work and good teaching can be downright exhausting. What I noticed, especially last year, is that it is hard to fight the culture of your school. If everyone is worn out, defeated, and simply aren't interested in trying anymore, it's so easy to slip into that mode too.

For this book to be effective, it has to give teachers a reason to work harder than those around them, harder most likely, than they are required to. Again, if someone is telling you that all you should do is what's in the book, that's easier than making up your own lessons, or finding interesting, engaging activities to go with the ones in your textbook. Teachers who read this book will have to a)understand that there are people out there to support them b)be given a new energy to try to use effective teaching methods while still following school and district directives.

This begs the question for me--did I handle being in a program improvement school the best way. For me, personally, I feel good about my choice to leave. I think i will be a better teacher in the long run for having been in a school where people are allowed to be creative, they collaborate and are encouraged to try new things. At the same time, I now kind of wonder if I shouldn't have made a bigger effort to 1)bring my administration over to my way of thinking by inviting them into the room and getting them to see the kids actively engaged. 2) broken the rules a little within reasonable boundaries. I'm not sure at this point. I remember how I felt last year, and am not sure how positive I could have been, but I think there are ways that I could have made more of a lasting impact on the school. My legacy really resides in one fifth grade teacher who has potential to make some change. I actually think he will make a big impact because we share some of the same ideals, and he may be able to play the game better with the new administration. We shall see.

Novel Studies

2006-09-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

This week, my reading class began reading a novel instead of reading stories out of the textbook. It's an interesting little experiment for me. Among other things, it's amazing to see how excited they get when I tell them we are getting into our groups for the novels. It's a whole new experience for some of them. And it's really clear that this is a kind of teaching that works. They are motivated. They are excited and they ask me when they come in if we get to read today. I'm still having a little trouble getting them talking about the book, but I would definitely say that they enjoy this much more than when we were just reading from the textbook.

Rewards and Punishments

2006-09-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

We had a conversation after school today about using punishments and rewards in class. The other two fifth grade teachers are having the same problem I am, that the kids are too talkative and take a long time to transition to new activities. One of the teachers was talking about how much easier it is to use rewards, and I had to agree--getting kids to do things is a lot easier if you offer them some incentive to do it. It's also second nature, since that's the way I've been teaching in the past, and it's certainly the way I was taught. So how to break away from that? It's frankly exhausting, in the middle of everything else, to be trying to think of entirely new ways to interact with kids. I heard the quote the other day-- sometimes the easiest thing is the right thing, but most of the time it's not. This isn't easy. I think it's right.

Finding Balance

2006-09-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

My mission this week has been in trying to find some balance between the work I'm doing at my school, the work I'm doing for Pepperdine and finding some sort of fun outlet so that I am not working all the time, or thinking about work, or writing about work... This is proving difficult for me, but I think I'm on the right track. I have made it a point to leave my school before 5 for the last 3 days, and have taken a minimal amount of work home with me. I'm trying to use the time that I'm at school more productively (i.e. less time hanging around talking about working and more actual working) and giving my student workers more to do.

I think the answer here is baby steps. I'm creating more time for myself, now I need to find something to do with it, so that I'm not tempted to just spend more time on my classroom. I need to reconnect with friends that I've barely spoken to since sometime last year, find some physical activities that I enjoy doing that get me away from my house and maybe even read a book or two. Ah, balance. :)

Pacing Guides

2006-09-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Today at our grade level chair meeting, our AP told us that we are going to have to create pacing guides for our language arts programs. This is part of being a program improvement school. When she said it, I cringed, and wondered really, what was the point of making the move that I had to this school. I think my reaction is mostly due to HOW pacing guides were implemented at my last school, with a rigidity that meant you would be written up no matter how your students were doing, or if the reason you were not on track was that your kids needed some reteaching.

I understand the frustration with having curriculum that you need to follow and having students that didn't get through LAST year's curriculum because their teacher only taught 2 units. (Out of 12) At the same time, a pacing guide has to allow room for flexibility. If you're going to use curriculum there must be some common sense involved too.

How to teach reading

2006-09-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning the fourth grade teachers at my school are going to come observe me teaching Houghton Mifflin. Which is funny--because it's my first year teaching Hougton Mifflin and my first year at this school and because I'm trying to teach less from the curriculum while they want to learn how to teach more...

Teaching from the book is something I know how to do. I just have to look over exactly what I want to do tomorrow (had planned to do something NOT from the book). I'm just torn about where all of this is going.

I wish I weren't having so much self-doubt and could just focus on teaching my kids and what THEY are learning instead of how I am doing. I'm having this terrible problem of trying to see myself through everyone else's eyes. I think that's what's called insecurity.

Teachable moments

2006-09-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking more and more about punishments and rewards in my classroom. I know that this year I am focusing less on rewards and really trying to eliminate unnecessary punishments. As I'm reading Alfie Kohn's book, he talks about replacing punishments with teachable moments. This makes a lot of sense to me and I realize I'm not really doing that with my students. When when one of my students has been in trouble for not turning in homework, I've talked to him about how important homework is, asked him why he's not getting it done, and even talked to his guardian, but I haven't really listened to what's going on with him, whether he's struggling with the work or what the reason is for the issue. Instead of punishing him, and talking to him about the consequences of his actions, I need to work with him to solve the problem.

"I Like the Way You...."

2006-09-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

I caught myself saying today "I like the way ____ is sitting quietly and is ready for the lesson." I have done this kind of thing the entire time I've been teaching. It's an eay way to get kids quiet and ready to go. It's a way to control students and get them to do what you want. I've just started reading Punished by Rewards, but I can tell already that this is what Kohn is talking about. When the reason you're giving praise is soley to manipulate someone else's behavior, then I think you have to question what you're doing.

I wonder, honestly, how much of what we say in a day is designed to manipulate someone else into doing what we want... I'm trying to be aware of this, but we'll see how hard that habit is to break.

Using Technology

2006-09-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

One thing that I'm realizing in the frantic first few weeks of school, is how quickly my plans to use technology have gone out the window. My kids have watched some presentations I made, and I used some cool hurricane footage that I found on the web, along with a brain pop, but I haven't even had them touch the computers yet. Another teacher in the 6th grade came to me to talk to me about how to do a Powerpoint "choose your own ending story" which he started with his class last week and I realized that I should get into gear. This week, the kids are starting an investigation project in reading and a travel brochure in Social Studies. I'm taking both classes to the computer lab today, but I can't wait to get them into some more interesting ways of using the computer.

My biggest frustration right now is that I'm used to having the rights to add things to my computers in my classroom (which I know is not typical). That is never going to happen at this school, I think because LAUSD has very strict requirements on how software is acquired and put on machines. Everything I want to use (mostly) is free and available to download, it's just a matter of putting a list together of what all I want and then getting permission for it to be on the computers. We'll see how it goes.

Where to make a change?

2006-09-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

A teacher friend emailed me last night after reading my blog and asked whether it was a better idea to stay in the "bad" school and try to make changes or to go to a school where everyone feels the same way I do. I told her that in all honesty, I had debated tht for a long time last year, and finally decided that there are some places where you can't really make changes.

I thought about it some more this morning and think there is more to it than that. My new school definitely has more like minded people, although perhaps not to the extreme that I am, but I think that having a whole school where everyone is working in a more meaningful way for kids, where everything is not focused on the test, is important in and of itself--to be part of an organization that's all working together to achieve that is necessary too. And frankly, schools like this need all the help they can get, because they are the minority and they need support. If I can help this school stay alive (and that could be in question in the coming years) than I think that's a worthy cause as it fights to educate our students.

Something Disturbing

2006-09-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

I realized something disturbing last night, as I was trying to go to sleep (once again way too late for my own good.) It's a lot easier to stay at a bad school and complain and rail against the system, than it is to go somewhere where change is really possible and to try to make that change. I don't know if that's profound or obvious, but I know that it's time to step up to the challenge.